Djibouti’s Mahmoud Ali Youssouf Has Been Elected As The New Chairperson of The African Union Commission
In the vote conducted on Saturday, February 15, Raila was eliminated from his bid to replace Moussa Faki.This is the second loss for Kenya at the regional body.
Before the elections, Raila’s campaign team had indicated he had support from at least 21 countries.
However, he took an early lead, garnering 20 votes in the hotly contested election, before making it through to the second, third, fourth, and fifth rounds.
Raila won the first two rounds of voting, but then went on to lose the next three rounds to Djibouti candidate Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.
In the first round, Raila garnered 22 votes against Mahamoud’s 18, while Richard Randriamandrato of Madagascar bagged 10 votes. There was one abstained vote.
In the second round, Raila secured 20 votes, Mahamoud got 18, and Randriamandrato received 10 votes. One nation abstained from the second round as well.
Mahamoud maintained his lead in the fourth round, scoring 25 votes against Raila’s 21 votes. There was one spoilt vote while one nation abstained.
In the fifth round, Mahamoud garnered 26 votes while Raila scored 21 votes, and one nation abstained from the vote.
then dropped from the vote, with Mahamoud remaining the only candidate in the succeeding rounds, in a bid to secure two-thirds of the votes.
Mahamoud won the AUC Chair seat after garnering 33 votes in round 7, and is now set to replace the outgoing Moussa Faki of Chad who has held the position for 8 years.